[Publib] Adults in children's area

[subs itoors]

Have you been to a large city lately?

There are several VERY effective ways to make public spaces secure-- 
and NY post 9/11 I can assure you has perfected many of them. How big  
is your town? Have you lived in manhattan or a very large city? Your  
ability to make judgements about the way people should do things in  
places where 2+ million people live in confined quarters is  
questionable.

As for your 1874 comment, I'll be sure to pass your insensitive  
comments on to the two mothers I know personally whose children were  
kidnapped (one killed, the other has never been found) in the past few  
years from public New York spaces.

Do you believe everything you read in the paper and assume things that  
happen are always in it?

Why don't you do a search of the children who drown in public resort  
pools--the PR people are so effective they never even make it to the  
paper. Including the boy who drowned 5 feet away from me in August  
this summer.





On Jan 30, 2008, at 6:26 PM, Patty Wanninger wrote:

> I think policies regarding appropriate behavior can be written that  
> reserve
> the use of children's rooms to children and people interested in  
> children's
> literature (which would include the developmentally disabled,  
> teachers,
> grandparents, etc.) and allow the removal of unattended adults who  
> just like
> to hang around the kiddies to another part of the library.
>
> I also think there can be policies written regarding appropriate  
> behavior
> that absolutely allow for the mitigation of the behavior of the  
> toddler
> having a meltdown in the adult area.
>
> However, there is no policy that can make the children's room or any  
> other
> room in a public facility a "secure public space." Although I frankly
> disbelieve that children are kidnapped from public places ALL THE  
> TIME, even
> in Manhattan, (I did a google search on it and came up with a NYT  
> article
> from 1874) I also think that despite our best efforts, the library  
> is a
> public building, and no more appropriate a place to leave your child  
> to
> autonomously walk around than the mall.
>
> Libraries are such an amazing public resource, and running them takes
> judgment, brains and maturity to score in a balk line game, as  
> Professor
> Harold Hill says. If we have a brand besides "books," I think it is  
> "access"
> and whether you have 5 people in the door per hour or 500, it  
> certainly is a
> challenge to have them all get along.
>
> Patty Dwyer Wanninger
> Director
> Blue Island Public Library
> 2433 York Street
> Blue Island, IL 60406
> 708-388-1078 ext 14
> -----Original Message-----
> From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> ]
> On Behalf Of subs itoors
> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 4:52 PM
> To: publib at webjunction.org
> Subject: [Publib] Adults in children's area
>
> Hello Wynita:
>
> I'm afraid I'm in complete disagreement with you. First of all, I'm
> sad that you use the word brat to describe children--especially anyone
> who works in a public service job. But I will not get drawn into an
> argument with you about your attitude towards future generations.
>
> I also think you fail to understand a much more fundamental issue.
> Perhaps in your teeny library it is easy for a child to be watched on
> monitored every minute. And yes, if your library is truly that small,
> clearly it is not such a big issue to have kids in the same space,
> because ostensibly you know the kids coming in and would see if
> someone they don't belong to is taking them.
>
> However, there is a much more concerning issue in larger spaces. It is
> almost impossible for a parent in a larger children's library (for
> example the 6,000 square foot space near us) to watch their child all
> the time--not to mention that it is an important developmental issue
> to allow children of a certain age the autonomy to walk around secure
> public spaces.
>
> Adults have many many other choices of places they can go--the world
> is open to them for public places to relax. They can go to the park,
> to a store, to Starbucks, to JCCs, churches, community centers and so
> on. iIf your community does not have adequate public accommodations
> for adults, then that is what you should be advocating for.
>
> However, children have far more limited places they can go to relax
> and learn, especially in winter. there are many people like you who
> consider kids who are just being kids "brats" so families are
> restricted in the places that they can take them where they can be
> lively and natural.
>
> In the city I live in, kids are stolen from public places ALL THE
> TIME. That is how the rule evolved.
>
> The easiest way to protect children is to create spaces for adults
> that are plentiful enough but to restrict children's areas to  
> children.
>
>
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